Law School

I was raised in the 1980s when it appeared that everyone needed to be a lawyer such as those on LA Law. The 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s (up until 2007) was the age of Large Law when the guarantee of a $100,000 to $160,000 wages was, it appeared, extended to anyone graduating from a top 20 school and to many individuals graduating from a top 50 law school with great levels and clerkships.Even in formerly poor markets – 1990 to 1992, 1998-2000 – the law profession appeared to live, if not flourish. Hundreds of a huge number of clever (and even not-so-clever) individuals were supported to become attorneys by a mixture of excessive wages – in 2007, Cravath, among the very best corporate law firms in the nation, offered bonuses of almost $100,000 for top performing associates – federally subsidized student loans, the supposed protection of a safe profession (with its bar exams), and putative stature (view any John Grisham novel).

Obviously, the truth of all that was a little suspect. While a top 20 law graduate back in the day could expect to earn a six-figure wages, unless he chose to go into public interest law, many grads did not have the same fortune. And while it is extremely awesome to think of yourself as a high minded constitutional litigator, or a trial lawyer from a Grisham novel, the practical, day to day experience of being a true lawyer was constantly (and still is) grinding.Minutes of glory are few and far between. Do not get me wrong, I love helping customers and love the practice of criminal law. And as my dad might say, it is a lot better than digging a ditch. However, the day to day practice of law isn’t out of a film script. It includes helping individuals with drug charge a DWI, or embezzlement or larceny. Only infrequently are most attorneys involved in high profile homicide trials involving movie stars!

The demand for law school as well as the government subsidization of school resulted in the development of the school sector, assisted by publications like U.S. News with its ridiculous school ranks. Schools became monetary profit centers of universities (such as successful sports systems) and in several cases were required to kick back money to the central university management to help underwrite the remainder of the less prosperous portions of the university.The prices were passed onto recent grads and, finally, the consumer that was legal in the kind of legal fees that were high, particularly in corporate law.

Who gained? Among the beneficiaries was the law school faculty. The normal faculty member at an adequate law school has next to no practical expertise. The man went out into the legal academy job market in the age of 28 or 29 to get a faculty job, and then went to a top law school, practiced for a year or two. Their practical abilities are kept up by a couple law professors by consulting on the side, or by performing pro bono legal work.

Most law professors understand precious little about what this means to be an attorney, and they are really proud of this. That is since the remaining part of the university has consistently looked at law schools (and business schools) as basically trade schools. They attempt to distance themselves from the practice of law since law professors do not need to believe they are engaged in a substantial Vocational Technical school.

The real program related to law school has altered from the 1930s, when it focused on early tort or 19th century common law theories or property law notions. These principles have hardly any to do with the fundamental manner property, tort, or criminal law is practiced in modern America. The majority of these laws are statutory, not common law, anyhow.Law school has been experiencing a boom in the previous 4 years, when the market takes a dive as typically occurs. That is because rather than go out into an uncertain job market, lots of youthful recent college graduates (and even mid-career professionals) determine to really go to school in the hopes of enhancing their employability. (What they are generally doing is raising their debt load, with no reasonable hope of paying those loans back. Therefore the clamoring to create student loans dischargeable in bankruptcy!)